Every year, the gravel neighborhood turns all eyes with a laser-like focus to Emporia, Kansas. Successful Unbound Gravel is a coveted prize, whether or not the signature 200-mile occasion or one of many different 4 distances. The race began out in 2006 with beneath 40 riders, all males, and now captures the creativeness across the globe with among the finest males’s and girls’s riders from throughout disciplines, drawn to the Flint Hills of the central US plains to seize gravel’s greatest prize.
Keegan Swenson (Santa Cruz Bicycles-SRAM) claimed one of many few large gravel outcomes lacking from his palmares when he gained the elite males’s race final yr. Carolin Schiff (Canyon CLLCTV) delivered a debut efficiency in 2023 that shone via the mud and rain-soaked version, leaving little doubt that she had discovered her biking house when she absolutely dedicated to gravel firstly of the season.
Each are lining as much as defend their titles on June 1, however it has been a few years since an elite rider has doubled up within the 200-mile race.
What’s extra, the competitors is intensifying, with the trickle of worldwide riders turning right into a flood, in order that now half the elite males’s subject is from outdoors america and a 3rd of the elite ladies’s subject.
The draw to riders in different disciplines, too, is turning into ever extra apparent with Matej Mohorič, who claimed the UCI Gravel World Championships on his debut, bringing the rainbow stripes to Kansas together with two of his Bahrain Victorious teammates.
Unbound Gravel 200 can also be the second cease of the Life Time Grand Prix, so the vast majority of the 60-rider subject in that season-long competitors will probably be in Emporia, together with 2023 ladies’s champion Sofia Gomez Villafañe (Specialised Off-Highway), who was second to Schiff final yr.
The race is something however predictable, with the intense potential for mechanicals and mishaps to strike out a variety of the strongest and best-prepared riders. Cyclingnews has run the ruler over the beginning record and picked out the names of a quantity who appear to have what it takes to be on the entrance of the fields for the 200-mile and 100-mile races.
Girls’s Elite Unbound 200
Carolin Schiff
- Unbound document – 2023 winner
When Carolin Schiff (Canyon CLLCTV) lined up for Unbound in 2023, she wasn’t precisely an unknown. She did get a point out in our contenders’ preview in spite of everything, however the German additionally wasn’t precisely the primary identify that rolled off the tongue when speaking race favourites. It was, in spite of everything, her debut at Unbound, however her spectacular performances in Europe on the UCI Gravel World Collection and with a Traka 200 win plus, within the US, a victory on the 2023 Gravel Locos had been a warning shot to her rivals. There’ll, nevertheless, be no query marks over her standing this yr, with Schiff not solely the defending champion at Unbound but in addition coming into the race as soon as once more with the Traka 200 win behind her.
This time Schiff has the expertise and the arrogance to know simply what she will be able to obtain on the race on her facet, nevertheless, there are parts of her preparation that haven’t been excellent. Schiff crashed on the 3RIDES Gravel World Collection race in Aachen earlier in Could, and the end result was, as she put it in an Instagram put up, “ an enormous, deep and soiled reduce that needed to be mounted within the hospital”. Nonetheless, she was rapidly again on the bike, so there isn’t any cause to low cost the rider who crossed the road first final yr.
Sofia Gomez Villafañe
- Unbound document – 2023 second, 2022 winner
So what race hasn’t Sofia Gomez Villafañe (Specialised Off-road) gained previously two seasons the place she was the favorite? It’s a very brief record, and the primary one which jumps off the web page is second place at Unbound 200 final yr. She gained three of the Life Time Grand Prix races wrapped round Unbound final yr to safe the collection title, plus added victories at BWR Arizona and SBT GRVL Black Course.
She began the 2024 Grand Prix by successful Sea Otter Traditional Fuego XL a second time with the flat bars. The Argentine-born rider returned to Cape Epic within the spring with new accomplice Samara Sheppard within the team-focused stage race for a block of racing resulting in Unbound 200, a components that labored effectively in 2022 when she gained each races. Whereas the duo didn’t crack the highest 10 in South Africa, Villafañe was in high type and went straight again to successful with the drop bars, as she defended her title at BWR Arizona after which gained the inaugural Valley of Tears.
“Unbound is a race the place you can’t go into it with a strong race plan because the dynamics of the race are unpredictable, and the climate can have a serious impression on how issues unfold,” the 30-year-old advised Cyclingnews. However what’s predictable is that the 2022 Unbound Champion can win all of it once more.
Geerike Schruers
- Unbound document – 2024 debut
The one-time street racer turned soigneur, after which gravel racer has rapidly made a substantial mark on the game. Geerike Schreurs dipped the toe into the self-discipline final yr however then launched with full pressure in 2024 as she signed as much as characterize SD Worx-Protime on the gravel. The rider, who has largely raced gravel in Europe to date, made the journey over to the US earlier this yr for the Belgian Waffle Journey Arizona, coming fourth however has been working her method up the rostrum because the season has progressed.
Within the UCI Gravel World Collection Wörthersee in April, it was second, then got here The Traka, when Schreurs examined out her potential to carry out in a race even longer than Unbound, selecting the 360km choice. That was when the Dutch rider made her declare as a contender clear, coming second behind Karolina Migon and in entrance of Sarah Sturm. Then, to verify her type, she took first at The Gralloch spherical of the UCI Gravel World Collection in mid-Could.
They had been outcomes that make Schreurs onerous to disregard, as does the jersey of the highly effective street workforce who is aware of all too effectively the best way to time type peaks to perfections. Plus, there isn’t any longer any room to rule out the potential for a European debut rider successful, not after Schiff’s efficiency in 2023.
Sarah Sturm
- Unbound document – 2023 third, 2022 seventh
Sarah Sturm (Specialised) returns for her third Unbound 200, the place she completed within the high 10 each instances, together with third final yr. The Colorado resident is available in with excessive marks from current races, together with third at The Traka 360, third at The Growler and high 10s at Sea Otter Traditional Fuego XL and The Mid South.
A part of her homework to organize for the second cease in her Life Time Grand Prix necessities was to journey to Kansas every week early and recon the north course. “I feel I’ve medal potential; I’d wish to throw my identify into that hat,” she mentioned.
Lauren De Crescenzo
- Unbound document – 2023 DNF, 2022 second, 2021 winner
Lauren De Crescenzo has moved into the privateer realm of off-road racing for 2024, however the lack of an organised workforce surroundings has not slowed her down in any method as a solo LDC. The 2021 Unbound Gravel 200 champion returns for an additional victory on the north course. She’s on type with a 3rd consecutive victory at The Mid South in March and a win on the newly-created spring classics-style The Growler street race.
A former street professional, De Crescenzo put the gravel bike apart for the US Professional Highway Nationwide Championships, the place she completed fifth within the elite ladies’s street race.
She’s again for an additional season within the Life Time Grand Prix, the place 2023 discovered her with a victory at The Rad Dust Fest and podiums at Crusher within the Tushar and Massive Sugar Gravel. Unbound Gravel 200 is her large goal.
Additionally within the combine
- It was straight from a win within the UCI Gravel World Collection at La Indomable to victory at The Traka 360 for Karolina Migon (PAS Regular), displaying she’s bought each the gravel type and endurance over an extended distance that’s important for Unbound.
- It is a sturdy Australian contingent within the ladies’s race this yr, with Tiffany Cromwell (Canyon-SRAM) swapping over from the 100, the place she has a successful document and Australian champion Justine Barrow drew the eye with a win on the SEVEN UCI World Collection race adopted by victory at Gravel Locos, although a difficult restoration from a shoulder damage could have left her with a lower than excellent preparation. Then there may be additionally Matilda Raynolds (Group Bridgelane), who has claimed victory on the longest gravel race within the nation the Soiled Warrny.
- There are a few different former Unbound 200 winners on the beginning line as effectively, in 2019 victor Amity Rockwell (PAS Racing) and final yr’s 360 winner Kristen Legan.
Males’s Elite Unbound 200
Keegan Swenson
- Unbound document – 2023 winner, 2022 second
In 2023, Keegan Swenson (Santa Cruz Bicycles) gained the primary 4 races within the Life Time Grand Prix collection, together with Unbound Gravel 200. He’s the king of US gravel and even has the stars-and-stripes jersey to show it.
The 30-year-old from Utah is pleased with a mass assortment of trophies, which embody back-to-back wins at SBT GRVL on the black course and a brand new course document final yr in his third consecutive win at Leadville Path 100 MTB.
Unbound Gravel 200 is a beast, and Swenson has spent a full coaching block coaching for a 3rd title. With rain within the forecast to show grime roads into mud once more, he has been targeted on ‘pounding the pedals’ and ‘panic packing all of my Maxxis tires’.
Challenger and reigning gravel world champion Matej Mohorič requested Swenson on social media if they need to use slick tyres “for the additional problem”. Even that may not decelerate Swenson.
Petr Vakoč
- Unbound document – 2023 second
It was a dash to the road final yr in Unbound 2023, and Petr Vakoč was bested by Keegan Swenson, however coming so shut within the occasion “actually made me imagine that racing gravel is the correct path for me,” mentioned the Czech rider in his finish of season wrap up.
The previous street skilled had made a comparatively late determination to affix the fray final yr as an impartial racer, however now the Isadore Canyon rider is getting into with a workforce behind him and the information of simply what he can do within the self-discipline and on the occasion.
He added a few UCI Gravel World Collection spherical wins to his tally in 2023 and has already began his victory record for 2024, claiming the opening prologue and general on the Sata Vall stage race in Spain and The Traka 200 firstly of the month, topping Jasper Ockeloen.
With one other season of expertise and the information that comes with a subsequent look on the race, there isn’t any telling what Vakoč may do the second time round.
Matej Mohorič
- Unbound document – 2024 debut
The street skilled hasn’t been a daily on the gravel scene, however on his very first race within the self-discipline, he claimed the UCI World Championship, successful the 2023 race solo even after a late crash. In consequence, the Slovenian will probably be lining up within the rainbow jersey, one which hasn’t precisely been out and about in racing, given the Bahrain-Victorious rider’s heavy commitments along with his WorldTour workforce.
The rider will face a significantly totally different problem when he strains up in Emporia than the one which unfolded in Veneto, Italy. For a begin, the space is way longer than the 163km World Championships and with way more gravel and probably mud than the course the place he claimed the rainbow bands, which was solely about half unpaved.
Nonetheless, he’ll be doing simply his second gravel race with two of his street teammates by his facet Matevž Govekar and Lukas Wiśniowski. “It is double the space, double the time, and double the elevation achieve, so it fits riders with extra endurance and stamina. I am unsure how I’ll go in opposition to the others, however I’ll positively do my finest, and luxuriate in my time out within the rainbow jersey as the present World Champion,” mentioned Mohorič.
Peter Stetina
- Unbound document – 2023 seventh, 2022 eighth, 2021 third, 2019 second
Peter Stetina (Canyon) is likely one of the stalwarts at Unbound Gravel 200, and gravel racing basically, having switched from Grand Excursions to gravel adventures in 2019. It’s his fifth look within the signature occasion, ending each time within the high 10 with podium spots in 2019 and 2021.
It’s fascinating that the 2 years he completed second and third had been on the northern route, the place Unbound heads on June 1 for under a 3rd time in its 18-year historical past.
“I’ve had an amazing spring, which takes the stress off a bit heading into the race, however in gravel, issues can change immediately, particularly on the northern course at Unbound,” Stetina mentioned at a current Unbound Gravel press convention.
The 36-year-old has certainly been nice this yr, with the general title at BWR Triple Crown, together with the win at BWR Utah, the general title on the Grasshopper Journey Collection, with the win at Ukia-Mendo Gravel Epic, and the highest prize in early Could at The Traka 360.
An early indication that Stetina ought to be again on the rostrum in Kansas is his familiarity with the north route and his type on a really muddy Traka course. Forecasts name for 2 days of rain previous to the beginning this Saturday, so Stetina could have a bonus on a route plagued by saturated soil and slippery flint rocks.
Matt Beers
- Unbound document – 2023 eleventh
The South African is heading towards his second Unbound, as soon as once more with a Cape Epic title to indicate for his early season efforts. The distinction is that he additionally “cracked the code” of US gravel racing to take victory on the Belgian Waffle Journey California and has a yr of expertise racing the Life Time collection within the US beneath his belt.
Because it did for a lot of, Unbound final yr threw up a variety of challenges for Beers on his debut, and he ended up in eleventh. A yr on, nevertheless, Beers is getting into the race with the good thing about figuring out what he’s in for and the motivation to construct on his strong begin to the Life Time Grand Prix collection after taking third on the Fuego XL.
The Specialised Off-road racer had a tough run within the collection final yr, plunging out of the highest ten when he crashed at Massive Sugar, and suffered a shoulder separation and damaged ribs.
Nonetheless, with an intensified give attention to the block of racing and longer stints deliberate within the US, a strong end result at Unbound is simply what Beers must consolidate his place as a contender for these sports activities proper close to the highest of the outcomes desk.
Additionally within the combine
- A big contingency of Dutch contenders will line up in Empoira, led by Laurens ten Dam, Jasper Ockeloen and Niki Terpstra. All three raced the 150-mile Gravel Locos in Texas and got here away with high 10s, with Terpstra second general. Ten Dam examined his ulta-endurance this spring and gained the continuous Transcordilleras gravel race throughout Colombia. Ockeloen has a string of high outcomes together with second general at BWR California and The Traka 200.
- Brendan Johnston is on a roll, having simply gained the Australian MTB Marathon nation title and victory on the SEVEN Gravel World Collection race in Nannup. The outcomes have been constructing within the US for the Big Off-Highway rider and he usually copes effectively with longer distances.
- Lachlan Morton, who was a formidable third in final yr’s seven-rider dash at Unbound 200. This yr he completed eighth at BWR California and competed at his third Cape Epic.
- Among the many lengthy record of US contenders is gravel newcomer Chad Haga, a current convert from the WorldTour peloton. He completed third at The Traka 360 and fourth general at Santa Vall gravel stage race in Spain. It’s his debut at Unbound Gravel 200.
- Uncertain to start out is 2022 Unbound 200 males’s winner Ivar Slik, the Dutch rider hospitalised final week with a extreme concussion suffered on a coaching trip in Arkansas. Additionally lacking from the record of contenders is USA’s Alexey Vermeulen, who was fifth in 2022, as he takes a break from racing to attend his brother’s marriage ceremony.
Unbound 100
Unbound Gravel 200 isn’t the one recreation on the town, with the main target of that signature occasion on the 209 elite racers from the 1480 on the beginning line. There are a complete of 5,000 individuals at Unbound Gravel in 2024, a brand new document, throughout 5 whole distances, and the Unbound Gravel 100 has the one largest subject with a complete of 1829 starters.
Headliners among the many elite racers within the 100-mile race embody Alison Tetrick, Caroline Mani, Kaya Musgrave and Flavia Oliveira Parks on the ladies’s facet. On the boys’s facet, search for battles amongst retired professional street veterans Travis McCabe and Tom Danielson. US cyclocross champion Jake Wells is within the subject, and is a wild card as he has expertise from 2022 within the 200-mile race.
Tetrick is a former street professional turned gravel gladiator, and she or he marked her foray into off-road racing in 2017 and gained the 200-mile race in Kansas. She completed third the subsequent yr and second in 2019. She rode the 200 distance three extra instances, however annually outdoors the highest 10. This marks her first time to trip the 100-mile occasion.
The six-time Unbound 200 finisher will probably be powerful to beat on the ladies’s facet, however Oliveira Parks may just do that. Throughout high-elevation gravel occasions, she completed on the rostrum at SBT GRVL twice (2021 and 2023). This season she gained the 75-mile Ukiah-Mendo Gravel Epic and was third at 68-mile Highlands Gravel. Like Tetrick, she had a street profession and turned to gravel 4 years in the past. She returned to her street bike at The Growler and completed fourth on a hilly and bumpy course nearly fitted to a gravel bike.
Two cyclocross riders to observe are French rider Caroline Mani and US rider Kaya Musgrave. They characterize two ends of the spectrum, Mani having raced on the street and off-road for 16 years and Musgrave, at 17 years of age, demonstrating an enormous engine throughout technical terrain. Mani has a confirmed document at Unbound 200, the place she completed twenty first amongst elite ladies so the 100-mile check ought to be a very good one.
McCabe is within the veteran class like Mani, the 35-year-old having a stellar profession on the street till he retired from the WorldTour in 2020. He gave it a attempt at Unbound 200 final yr, however withdrew after 124 miles and ended within the “what the hell did I simply get myself into” class. He was twenty fourth at BWR California this spring, so the 100-mile distance is in his wheelhouse.
Danielson is new to gravel, having high 20 outcomes this yr at Belgian Waffle Journey Utah and The Mid South. He had stepped out of the limelight of racing in 2015 when he examined constructive for artificial testosterone, which was a second strike following a six-month ban in 2012. and had been teaching Lauren De Crescenzo for a couple of years, however she is now solo.
